


Betrayal (Or, how he finds out)

by Fandomcraziness22



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry finds out Nora's secret, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, West-Allen Family (The Flash TV 2014) Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 13:23:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20546867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandomcraziness22/pseuds/Fandomcraziness22
Summary: How I wanted Barry to find out Nora was working with ThawneCanon compliant through 5x14, then diverges from canon





	Betrayal (Or, how he finds out)

(This first part is background to set the stage)

Just defeated Cicada, team is taking a breath

Breach opens, Thawne comes through in Reverse Flash suit

Everyone stares in shock as he stands there, reveling in the reveal, and then he runs at Barry, punches him then runs away, Barry following. They battle.

Nora is following them at a distance, unable to keep up with them and help (also confused as to why Thawne is battling her father without talking to her first)

Somehow Thawne cuts out Barry’s comms with the team (and Nora’s; he implanted something in her suit which also turns off her tracker)

~

They end up at the stadium, where they had their first fight years ago. Barry is beginning to hate that place. Nothing good has happened here; he avoided going to any games in the years after that first fight, the place only bringing back bad memories. Then Nora getting brainwashed by the meta-tech a few months ago landed them here as well. This stadium has brought Barry nothing but pain.

Barry is stronger than he used to be, but Thawne still beats him and puts meta cuffs on his wrists, locking them above his head (advanced meta cuffs from the future are quite helpful that way. Thawne has already set them to become heavier than Barry can lift before he came back to the past.) Barry goes down hard, not ready for the weight of the cuffs, nor the lack of power so sudden. The best way to beat a meta is to take away their powers, after all. Even in the future, Eobard hasn’t come across a better way to take down other powerful metas. Thawne stands over Barry’s body lying on the ground, unable to escape. Because they have stopped running, Nora is able to catch them. She zooms onto the pitch and stops short as she takes in the situation.

“Thawne!” Nora’s voice rings out in the silent stadium. “What are you doing?”

“Nora,” Barry rasps. Her eyes catch his. “Get out of here.” He knows he can’t win right now with no powers, but his only thought is that Nora is safe. Nora has become a top priority in his life, and he won’t see her die here.

She looks at Thawne again. “What are you doing?” She asks again. She refuses to look at her father again, scared of what she might find. “This isn’t what was supposed to happen.”

Thawne simply laughs. “You really think I’m going to honor our deal when I have everything I want right here?”

“What deal?” Barry asks, confusion evident in his voice. His eyes flick back and forth between Thawne and his daughter, fear like he’s never felt before licking up his body.

Thawne looks down at the man below him, his sworn enemy. He can’t help but take this moment to gloat. “Oh, the deal. You don’t know?”

Barry focuses on Thawne, anger and masked confusion in his eyes.

“You don’t know how your daughter has been talking to me, working with me?” Thawne enjoys the confused look Barry continues to shoot to his daughter, enjoys Nora’s obvious discomfort. “Yes, you see,” he draws Barry’s eyes back to him. “I’ve been helping her on this heartwarming trip to her past, to see her father and defeat Cicada. Why, you might ask, would I help my enemy’s daughter change the past to keep him from disappearing?”

He pauses for dramatic effect. Barry’s still breathing heavily, and Thawne presses a boot down on Barry’s chest as a reminder of who is winning here. He lets out a groan, and Thawne faintly smiles at Nora’s flinch. “I help her, she lets me out of the hell hole I’ve been kept in. But,” he chuckles. “You might say, well, he could bribe whoever he wants to get him out of prison. Why go through that much trouble?”

Thawne looks at Nora now. “That trouble saved your father. Saved him, so he could suffer as I have suffered. I promise there will be no end to his pain.”

Barry watches Nora, who takes off her mask. Her face is shining with tears. Nora shakes her head. “No. Thawne, no. We had a deal. I trusted you.”

Barry’s head is spinning. Nora, his daughter, has been working with Thawne? How is that possible? Could she have done that?

“Nora?” Barry’s voice is weak, and he reaches his bound hands out slowly to his right, where Nora is standing. He reaches to the woman he was (is? he can’t decide in his turmoil of emotions) proud of, who had a place in his heart. She doesn’t look at him. “Nora?” He whispers, willing an explanation from her. This time she looks at him. “You made a deal with Thawne?” He needs the confirmation from her. Thawne is a liar, and always has been. Nora stays still, eyes locked on his.

There’s a long moment where nothing happens. Barry’s thoughts run wildly, trying to sort out how she could have done that. A tiny slice of his heart hopes the Reverse Flash is lying, and that Nora is simply confused. The overwhelming feeling of fear is growing, and he can hardly think straight.

Finally, Nora nods. “He gave me the key to getting back to help you. He’s been helping me figure out how to stop Cicada. I needed him.”

Barry’s heart shatters into a million tiny pieces. He can’t understand, can’t comprehend how his wonderful daughter could be working with someone so evil. How his smart, genius daughter thought this was a good idea. How Nora kept it a secret for so long.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Barry’s voice hurts, and his heart hurts, and everything hurts really, but he needs to know.

Nora looks away. She can’t bear to see that disappointment, that betrayal. “Because…” she can’t finish her sentence. _Because he was the only one who could help me. Because mom didn’t want me to do any of this. Because you weren’t there, and I needed you. Because I didn’t want you to hate me, the team to hate me. _All things she wants to say, but can’t. Her words won’t come out.

Nora turns to Thawne instead. “Thawne, listen to me. Please. Let my dad go. I need him and Mom needs him, you know that. I’ll give you whatever you want. Just let him go.” Her tears glisten in the harsh lights of the stadium.

Barry begins breathing heavier as he struggles to hold back his tears. Nora is pleading for his life, but he can’t let her do that. No matter who she trusted or what she did, she is his daughter first. His responsibility.

“No,” He begins, and feels Thawne’s boot pressing down even harder. “Leave her alone,” he grits out. All he wants to do is shut his eyes, but he can’t allow himself to. There’s no backup, no one coming to save them. Barry tries to think of a plan to get them both out, but the time for plans has long since passed.

“Now isn’t this touching,” Thawne’s voice rings out over the field. He leans down into Barry’s face, and whispers, “Too bad there’ll be nothing left of her when I’m done.”

Barry instantly jerks, anger evident in his eyes as he tries to get in a hit on Thawne, but he is outmatched and at a disadvantage in every way. Thawne pushes him farther into the ground, cutting off his circulation as Barry tries to hold in a groan.

“Please!” Nora shouts, and moves close enough so that she can just touch the man she had chosen to trust.

“Ah, ah.” Thawne says mockingly, wagging a finger at the purple speedster. “One step closer and the Flash will be no more.” Nora stops, and Barry wheezes, trying to catch a breath.

“What do you want, Thawne?” Nora asks. “Please. Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it. Just let him go.”

Thawne has studied Nora enough to know that she is on the verge of doing something he won’t like. He needs to regroup, work out the next step in his plan now that he has Nora here.

Moving too quickly for anyone to react, he stomps on Barry’s knee, breaking it with a crack that echoes in the empty stadium. Barry screams in pain, and Nora yells, “No!”

Thawne leans down again as Barry writhes in pain. “An insurance against coming after me so soon. See you around, Flash.” And with a streak of red lightning, Thawne grabs Nora and disappears, the purple lightning of Barry’s only hope flowing by.

Alone, Barry curls into himself on the ground and breathes. He can only lay there and stare at the ground as his emotions swirl in his mind. He lets the tears come as he takes in what just happened. Nora was working with Thawne the entire time. Thawne has beaten Barry (again) and taken Barry’s daughter away from him. His body is screaming in pain from all the hits Thawne had landed on him, and his knee is throbbing, his speed healing unable to kick in due to the meta cuffs. His head hurts from attempting to outsmart a man he hates, and from trying to grasp the situation as it unfolded. His heart is broken from Nora’s betrayal.

Barry is damaged in more ways than one.

Eventually he hears a breach open, and Barry looks around to see Cisco and Caitlin coming through. He can only watch numbly as they take in the situation, and he thinks he hears Caitlin talking into her comms. They hack the meta cuffs off and sit him up carefully, talking and asking questions that he can’t answer. The only sound that breaks through completely is Cisco’s broken, “Nora?”

Barry shakes his head and stares at the ground, avoiding his friends’ probing gazes. He’s not ready to tell them everything. The one person he needs is his wife, and he doesn’t know how he’s going to face her with the truth.

They stand him up, helping him keep weight off of his leg, and Cisco breaches them back to Star Labs, where they head straight for their infirmary. He could feel his speed healing starting up again after they took the meta cuffs off, but he knows he still needs to lie down. Barry complies with all of Caitlin’s orders as she checks on his injuries and waits for the clicking of boots that signal the person he most wants yet dreads to see.

Eventually Iris, Joe and Sherloque come. Iris heads straight to Barry’s side, grabbing his hand as he gives her the faintest of smiles. Caitlin tells them that he’s banged up, but she’s set his leg and with his speed healing he’ll be back in a couple days.

They’re all silent for a moment, then Joe asks the question everyone wants to know. “What happened, Barry?”

Barry doesn’t answer at first. He looks at his wife, the person he needed to draw strength from. He sighs, then says, “Nora was working with Eobard Thawne the whole time she’s been here.” His voice cracks, and everyone is silent. “He helped her figure out how to stop Cicada. And then he took her.”

Caitlin gasps, Iris puts her hand to her mouth, and Joe begins pacing. Sherloque doesn’t look as stunned as the rest of the team, but his eyes are wide and Barry can see his wheels spinning mentally.

Cisco is the first to surprise Barry. “No.”

Everyone looks at him confused. “No,” he says again. “That can’t be right. She wouldn’t have done that.” His eyes are filling with tears as he violently shakes his head, and Barry can see his best friend breaking down. Cisco had come to love Nora as his friend and teammate (and how could he not enjoy spending time with her when he learned just how much of a fangirl she was?), and he couldn’t believe she could turn on them like this.

Cisco looks at the speedster (their only speedster now, a voice in his head says), and asks him. “How?”

Barry squeezes Iris’s hand as he answers. “I don’t know. She said they had some kind of deal.”

Iris rubs her free hand up and down Barry’s arm, trying to soothe the both of them. Their hands are clasped together, and Barry has never been more grateful to have her with him. He’s not sure how they’re going to fix this.

Caitlin brings up the next question. “How was she able to work with him when she’s been here with us for months?”

Sherloque pipes up. “She’s been traveling back to her own time, I suspect. She had a journal she wrote in often, and the computer finally finished decoding it a few days ago. I had no time to sit down and look at it, as we became busy with Cicada.”

“We need to find her.” Iris’s voice is firm, and her eyes shine with tears. “I don’t care what she did. She is my daughter.” She looks at Barry. “Our daughter,” she adds. “And we need to get her away from Thawne.”


End file.
